Sober

I don't know when it's safe to say I've kicked the habit. But I took my brother to the movies yesterday, yesterday being day 7 of no cokes. I had my smuggled in bottle of water, he had an overpriced Mr. Pibb from the concession stand. I took a sip and it was almost gross. Too sugary and not even an enjoyable fizz.

Last night they were pouring drinks from a 2 liter and I wasn't tempted in the least.

I feel like I've sobered up or something.

So it's been all water for most of the week. Friday night I did indulge in a treat. I bought one sweet tea and one unsweet tea from McDonalds, went home and mixed the two in a pitcher and split them amongst the cups for me and my mom. We enjoyed those while watching the Olympics. I love McDonald's tea, but I find it too sweet most of the time. The mix of sweet and unsweet was perfect.

Practicing What I Preach

Monday morning I sat in an exam room with my Dad while his cardiologist urged him to quit smoking. On the way home we argued a bit about the issue. But I realized later that it was pretty rich of me to get on to him about his smoking when I can't give up my own vices. Vices like obsessive soda drinking and over-eating.

Over the last few weeks I'd been feeling gross. My skin felt gross. I felt sluggish. Over the weekend I'd been seriously looking to changing some habits. But it was the doctor's visit that really sent me over the edge. If I preach it, it being the ability to quit addictions, then I should be able to practice it.

I'm happy to report that I've been Sprite free all day. Coke free since Saturday night. I had a moment at dinner where the fizz coming from my brother's cup sounded downright intoxicating, but I resisted.

After dinner I made smoothies.

8 frozen whole strawberries
1 whole banana
Soy Milk

This made enough for smoothies for 3 or 4 people. They were so delicious, I just can't figure out why I haven't been making them before now.

Greek Yogurt

In order to achieve my goal of changing my eating habits I'm going to have to try lots of healthier alternatives so I can figure out what I like.

The Laughing Cow Cheese yesterday (light french onion) was amazing. I'd only had the regular swiss version before and hadn't been overwhelmed by it. But I anticipate keeping them on hand from now on. I ate them with wheat thins yesterday, but I also think they'd be awesome with celery sticks, which I'm going to try later.

I've been reading on many nutrition blogs about Greek Yogurt. It's thicker than regular yogurt, but has no fats, no cholesterol and typically less sugar. Also, WAY more protein. (There is a small article about it HERE)



I wasn't starving this morning when I tried this one, but it was good. They aren't kidding when they say Greek Yogurt is thicker. The pomegranate was okay, but I'm looking forward to trying the strawberry version of the same brand. This brand is sweetened with evaporated cane juice instead of straight up sugar, for whatever it's worth.

The Challenge

The biggest challenge so far is breaking the bad habits.

Sodas: I'm currently Day 3 of no caffeine. While it seems easy to just say switch to diet coke and you'll be fine, I stand by my opinion that diet drinks are the most disgusting beverages on the planet. Yes, I've tried them all. I'm simply going to have to do this the hard way and give sodas up. So far I'm placating my addiction with Sprite. At the very least there are no dyes and no caffeine. And I'm limiting them to one or two per day. I'm partially convinced that half of my addiction is the carbonation part which has me eyeballing this carbonator pretty hard, but I doubt there's $200 under the couch cushions.

Better snacking: the biggest temptation in this department came yesterday in the potato chip aisle at Walmart. I was salivating at the mere thought of a Funyon, or a Frito or some Sunchips. But you can't eat them if you don't bring them home, right? Score one for me.

Eating breakfast: today was not a challenge at all since I skipped class because of the snow.

Meals were as follows,

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs (scrambled with smart balance), slice of whole wheat toast and a tomato.

Lunch: some turkey, a serving of Wheat Thins with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, and a banana with a dollop of organic peanut butter.



Snack: several midget size dill pickles, a couple of olives, and some grapes.

Dinner: homemade fish sandwich on wheat, spinach, a small corn on the cob with smart balance.

I've found throughout the day that keeping sugar free gum on hand really helps with the desire to snack. That's just something I didn't think to keep around when I was all about eating whatever I pleased.

Baby steps.

The Beginning: A Lifestyle Experiment

I commute two days each week for school. During those days I spend many hours in classrooms and libraries with access to nothing more than vending machines and food courts. I run out of time in the early morning hours to fix anything for breakfast so I pick up McDonalds on my way in. I drink a gigantic coke most mornings to begin my day. Later, starving, I tear into bags of chips with the change I've scraped up, or I throw down a wasteful $5-$7 on something gross from a fast food joint.

On the days I'm not in class I normally skip breakfast anyway and scrounge up various unhealthy items for something that barely resembles a lunch. Dinners are a family thing and I do pretty good with those. We eat out just once or twice each week. And when we're not eating out I like to buy local meats, organic chicken and good ingredients. I'm happy with that part of my day.

But dinner is not enough to make up for my bad habits. Bad habits like unhealthy lunches and breakfasts, chronic soda drinking, and an addiction to unhealthy snacks like potato chips and candies.

I'm not under any false pretense that I will make the changes I need to overnight. Or that making better choices for myself will be easy. If it were easy I'd have succeeded at ignoring these food temptations years ago. Instead I keep drinking, keep munching and keep finding myself on the path to heart disease, or diabetes, or premature death.

Tomorrow my Dad goes for an echocardiogram. His heart problems are numerous, his sister has them as well. Their parents both had strokes. On my mother's side there are the same issues. The point is I'm not batting good numbers on the hereditary front. The least I can do is not fill my body with this junk.

So my current plan of action involves the following:

• eating a healthy breakfast every single day of the week.
• no more Coca-Colas.
  
• making fruits and veggies a part of my day before dinner.
• cutting out the bad snacks; no more chips.
• more whole ingredients, organic when possible.
• pack my lunches on Tuesday and Thursday.

This isn't a diet which means I won't go buy fat free hotdogs and 100 calorie packs and expect to lose weight. This is a lifestyle change. This is about making better food choices at the grocery store. This is about learning to love vegetables. This is about cutting out the fake processed crap that is going to kill me. This is about learning moderation.

This is the first day.

Welcome to my journey.

Planting a Healthy Seed: The Seed is Sown

Act as though and it shall be.
The seed you sow today will not produce crop till tomorrow. For this reason, your identity does not lie in your current results. This is not who you are.
Your current results are who you were.
– James A. Ray